Miscellaneous technical amendments
Certain information that must be disclosed in a loan contract
Section 13 prescribes that certain information must be disclosed in the loan contract.
The order in which deductions and payments are offset against the consolidated loan balance
Two corrections to the Student Loan Scheme Act 2011 deal with the order in which payments are to be offset against a borrower's consolidated loan balance.
How interest is calculated, charged and compounded
An amendment inserts a new term "accrued" into the Student Loan Scheme Act 2011 to reflect the current administrative practice for statements to show the amount of interest calculated up to the date of the statement but not yet charged
Student loan repayment codes
Changes have been made to the Student Loan Scheme Act 2011 to correct some minor legislative errors.
Notification period for significant over-deductions
The provision enabling borrowers to request that the Commissioner investigate whether a significant over-deduction has occurred has been amended. The change ensures that the borrower has six months from the date the over-deduction occurred to request the Commissioner investigate the over-deductions
Repayment obligations of overseas-based borrowers
An amendment has been made to clarify that an overseas-based repayment obligation for a year is based on a borrower's consolidated loan balance at the end of the previous tax year.
Issuing an additional deduction rate or a special assessment to collect a significant under-deduction
Three amendments have been made to the provisions enabling an additional deduction rate notice to be issued.
Transitional provision for small amounts of unpaid and uncollected repayments obligations
When changes were made to the Student Loan Scheme Act 2011 to defer the application date of some of the reforms for a year, a legislative oversight resulted in the transitional provision relating to small amounts of unpaid repayment obligations applying from 31 March 2012 instead of 31 March 2013. Also, the provision incorrectly referred to only one of two legislative references, omitting the reference to section 139(1) of the Student Loan Scheme Act 2011.
Commissioner may grant relief from late payment interest
For the 2012-13 tax year, an amendment has been made to ensure that when a borrower has applied for and been granted relief from that late payment interest, any interest already paid is offset against any unpaid amount and then against any current year repayment obligation before being refunded. This ensures that amounts are not refunded to borrowers while they still owe money to Inland Revenue.
Reference to consolidated loan balance
An amendment has been made to the annual administration fee provision to correct a drafting error by replacing "loan balance" with the term "consolidated loan balance" as the intent of the annual administration fee policy was that the fee applies to borrowers whose consolidated loan balance was $20 or more.
Date published: 18 Jun 2012
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